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UNCORRECTED TRANSCRIPT OF ORAL EVIDENCE To be published as HC 235-xxi HOUSE OF COMMONS MINUTES OF EVIDENCE taken before the on the DAY EIGHTY-FOUR Before: Mr Alan Meale, in the Chair Mr Brian Binley Mr Philip Hollobone Kelvin Hopkins Mrs Siān C James Sir Peter Soulsby
Ordered: that Counsel and Parties be called in. 21736. CHAIRMAN: Today the Committee will hear the Promoter's written response to the Select Committee's decision. First of all, could I welcome everybody back. It has been a fairly tortuous summer. I hope you have had more of a recess than I did, although yours is considerably shorter than ours. Would you like to respond? 21737. MR MOULD: Thank you very much, sir. Before I do, I ought to note an event that occurred last Friday which the Committee will be aware of. That is, as you will know, the Prime Minister made an announcement last Friday, 5 October 2007. The Prime Minister has given Crossrail the green light with a £16 billion funding deal to secure the construction of the project. This will mean that Crossrail is funded by the Government and businesses that are set to benefit directly from the railway. The cost is to be shared equitably between the Government, Crossrail fare payers and the private sector. The Promoter intends to continue to steer the Bill through Parliament so that a single programme of construction can begin in earnest in 2010. We expect that the first services on the railway will begin to run in 2017. We are planning to build up the complete service incrementally over the following 12 months or so. As we move closer to contracts being let, we shall keep the precise timetable for delivery of the project and its different elements under review, that of course being a central element of project development, so we can secure the optimum opening strategy. 21738. Moving then to the response to this Committee's interim decisions of 12 July this year, the Promoter has provided the Committee with a comprehensive response document which gives our detailed response to those interim decisions. The Committee will wish to consider that document. I was not proposing to perform the laborious task of reading it on to the record but note that it has been provided. I think I may say, and I hope the Committee, following consideration of the document, will find that this is a fair way of putting it, that it is a positive response to the decisions that the Committee informed us of in July this year. The document has been published on the Department for Transport and Crossrail websites and letters are going to Petitioners affected by your decisions and the responses that we have given which have not already been in discussion with the Promoter regarding those matters. 21739. That is all I propose to say to you publicly in this session about that. As I say, the document has been circulated in the way that I have indicated. Unless there is anything else, I will move on to the third matter which I wanted to draw ‑‑-- 21740. CHAIRMAN: Before you do, does anybody want to ask any questions? Okay. 21741. MR MOULD: The third matter relates to two items of bill amendment. First of all, in the response document itself you will see that in our response to the Committee's decision as regards Canary Wharf we have proposed an amendment to Clause 6 of the Bill which relates to the Secretary of State's exercise of the power of compulsory acquisition and the extension of that power and the terms upon which any such extension may take place. An appropriate form of words is set out in Annex E to that document in relation to that matter. The second matter relates to Clause 63 in the draft bill, and the parliamentary agents for the Promoter provided details of that in a letter dated 3 October this year to your clerk. That is a relatively minor matter. It relates to the clause which provides for deposited plans and sections in relation to the scheme and it is simply to tie in the updated plans and sections to the detailed wording of Clause 63 itself. I do not think I need to say any more than that about that particular amendment. 21742. That having been said brings me to the end of what I wanted to say in relation to matters today. Unless there are any questions or other matters that you wish to raise with me? 21743. CHAIRMAN: Would anybody like to? No, you are very lucky this morning! Could I just say, clearly we will take this away, read it and come back in due course. There may not be another sitting of this Committee so as that may be the case - it might not be, we may insist on having another hearing - could I thank you and all of your team for the excellent job you have done in the course of this Bill, which has been quite lengthy and arduous, certainly for a parliamentary bill. We are very grateful and very grateful to those advisers who came and advised the Committee on occasions when we needed it. We are extremely grateful and, as you said, Brown is not that bad, contrary to reports in the press, and he has taken a good decision and given a good lead for us on this Bill. Hopefully one day this railway will be built to the benefit of all Londoners and those who visit London. We are extremely grateful. If you could pass on to your colleagues our thanks and good speed. 21744. MR MOULD: That is very kind of you and I shall certainly pass on those kind words. Of course, we echo to the hilt what you have just said about the Committee's desire that the railway should be built and I need do no more than to remind you of our appreciation which we expressed to you at your sitting in July of this year. 21745. CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much. The Committee now stands adjourned and we will report in due course. The Committee adjourned sine die |